The ejaculation had been drawn from my companion by the fact
that our door had been suddenly dashed open, and that a huge man
had framed himself in the aperture. His costume was a peculiar
mixture of the professional and of the agricultural, having a black
top-hat, a long frock-coat, and a pair of high gaiters, with a
hunting-crop swinging in his hand. So tall was he that his hat
actually brushed the cross bar of the doorway, and his breadth
seemed to span it across from side to side. A large face, seared
with a thousand wrinkles, burned yellow with the sun, and marked
with every evil passion, was turned from one to the other of us,
while his deep-set, bile-shot eyes, and his high, thin, fleshless
nose, gave him somewhat the resemblance to a fierce old bird of
prey.
"Which of
